Over the years, expressing love for friends and family has somehow become synonymous with showering them with candy, cakes and other unhealthy treats. Believe it or not, there are ways to be both festive and health-conscious while pleasing the crowd.

The Nebraska proposal, which has provisions similar to programs in 14 other states, including Iowa, would allow individuals, corporations, and estates and trusts to contribute to organizations that grant scholarships to students to attend private schools and receive a state tax credit of up to 60 percent.

A dispute erupted Monday during a legislative hearing over whether drivers who work for the ride-sharing companies have auto insurance after they log into the companies' computer systems and wait for a customer to be assigned.

After the Omaha city prosecutor’s deliberation of charges was thrust into the public eye, David Smalheiser has leveled charges of assaulting an officer with a bodily fluid against a woman accused of spitting upon police officers in December. Initially, Smalheiser’s office declined to file assault charges in the days after the woman, Jozette M. Cotton, was arrested.

Public safety

With a growing city and some new players in office, political leaders in Omaha and Douglas County are dusting off an old and controversial idea: combining city police and county deputies into a single metropolitan police force.

Gov. Pete Ricketts signed Legislative Bill 219 into law late last month, intended to help divorced or unmarried military parents obtain a court-ordered connection to their children before being deployed.

Fundraising nearly complete

The organization will build a $23.3 million center near 36th and Cuming Streets and tear down the old building after the new one opens. Officials anticipate that it will be ready for occupants in December 2016.

Todd Bartusek, 44, was sentenced Friday to three years of probation, in part because he had paid back all the income taxes he had failed to claim. He could have faced up to five years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon struck down the state’s gay marriage ban but delayed the implementation of his ruling for a week, giving the state a chance to stop gay weddings from being performed.

Competitive siblings on a roll

It was love that baked the homemade bread Mary Jo Klusmire and her siblings took in their lunches to South Omaha Catholic schools. It was love that grew the fat tomatoes in her late father’s garden, and roasted the garlic and stewed the sauce. And it is love that will be on display today at Gorat’s. Along with hundreds of meatballs.

The $700,000 in donations will allow the City of Omaha to renovate the two-field Jerry Parks Youth Football Complex, at Levi Carter Park, to even better than it was before the thieves tore it apart in 2011.

A trip to Omaha in 1968 was a life-changing event for Aruna Shrivastava, who was struggling with a heart defect in her homeland. Pediatric heart surgery was then a new frontier in India. Doctors there were pushing Aruna's father, who was already in Nebraska, to let them try the surgery. But he wanted it done here.

FROM THE NOTEBOOK

Tom Mulligan, a U.P. retiree and president of the Omaha City Council in 2011-2013, served as general manager of commuter rail operations for the MBTA, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, from last July until this week.

One would create a pilot job-training program specifically aimed at preparing people from high-poverty or high-unemployment neighborhoods to work on city projects. The other would create an incentive for companies, when they contract with the city, to hire unemployed people.